Fisher Space Original Astronaut Retractable Pen, Metallic

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Thixotropic ink in the sealed and pressurized reservoir enables the pen to write for three times longer than a standard ballpoint pen

Debuting on the Apollo 7 mission in 1968, Fisher Space Pen has been on every NASA manned space flight since. In fact, Fisher Space Pens now has its own permanent exhibit inside the Apollo / Saturn V Centre at the Kennedy Space Centre, which proudly shares our history and products with some three million people a year. Our products have also managed to find themselves onboard the International Space Station and have been utilized by the Russian and Chinese space programs, as well! The patches, though, are not the only way the pins have flown in space. Gold pin presentation ceremonies have been held in orbit and two of the physical silver astronaut pins are on the moon today.

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However, unless you're an astronaut you're not in the habit of regular travel to outer space - so what's in it for the rest of us? Well, the technology that ensures that these pens can write in zero-G also enables them to: The Story Behind the Fisher Space Pen". Archived from the original on October 30, 2014 . Retrieved September 23, 2013. David, Larry (October 2, 1991). "Script: Episode 20 - The Pen". Seinology.com. Archived from the original on November 9, 2012 . Retrieved April 30, 2013. Ballpoint pens have been used by Soviet and then Russian space programs as a substitute for grease pencils as well as NASA and ESA. [10] The pens are cheap and use paper (which is easily available), and writing done using pen is more permanent than that done with graphite pencils and grease pencils, which makes the ball point pen more suitable for log books and scientific note books. However, the ink is indelible, and depending on composition is subject to outgassing and temperature variations.

And Today: MIR Cosmonauts Use Fisher Space Pens For Their Writing Needs". Archived from the original on 2007-11-18 . Retrieved October 4, 2013. And Today: MIR Cosmonauts Use Fisher Space Pens For Their Writing Needs". Archived from the original on October 30, 2014 . Retrieved September 23, 2013. Standard Space Pen refills can be used in any pen able to take a standard Parker-type ballpoint refill, using the small plastic adapter that is supplied with each refill. Fisher also makes a Space Pen-type refill that fits Cross pens, one that fits 1950s-style Papermate pens (or any pen that uses that type of refill), and a "universal" refill that fits some other ballpoint pens.

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The pens have been used on every crewed NASA mission since Apollo 7 – dozens are currently on the International Space Station. The original ballpoints were terrible,” said Cary Fisher, Paul’s son, and current president of the company, which is now located in Boulder City, Nevada. He notes that the early ballpoints tended to leak, skip, and dry up. Nope. Paul Fisher at the Fisher Pen Company had already been working on a pressurized pen. That said, it would never have reached the heights it did, in orbit or in popularity, without NASA’s testing. The new astronaut pin, which borrowed its design from the military badge, was chosen by the astronauts themselves at a get together organized by Mercury (and later Gemini and Apollo) pilot Wally Schirra. The quantity of graphite particles actually produced during occasional writing would be too small to constitute an electrical hazard.

It's working," said Cunningham, after initially trying out the new Moonwalker pen. "This is much nicer looking than the pen that we had." Several instruments have been used to write in outer space, including different types of pencils and pens. Some of them have been unmodified versions of conventional writing instruments; others have been invented specifically to counter the problems with writing in space conditions. As with submarines before them, space capsules are closed environments, subject to strict contamination requirements. Incoming material is screened for mission threats. Any shedding, including wood, graphite, and ink vapors and droplets, may become a risk. In the case of a crewed capsule, the much smaller recirculating volume, combined with microgravity and an even greater difficulty of resupply, make these requirements even more critical. Mercury astronaut Deke Slayton's diamond-studded, gold astronaut pin, as presented to him by the widows of the fallen Apollo 1 crew and flown to the moon by Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11. (Image credit: Bonhams) That testing accelerated the pen’s development from a prototype to a proven high-performance product.

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Fisher Space Pen is ready for NASA's next missions to the moon, 50 years after its writing instruments were used by astronauts on the lunar surface. Faced with these requirements, pencils or other non-permanent recordkeeping methods are unsatisfactory. The act of taking permanent, high-integrity documentation itself deters kludges, workarounds, and " go fever". The Apollo 1 investigation uncovered procedural and workmanship deficiencies in multiple areas, up to procedures on the pad. The astronaut pin has come to represent the astronaut corps and, as such, has been incorporated into another of the crew members' adornments, their mission patches.